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Artist (Cleckheaton, England, 1889 - 1949)
Date1934
Mediumtempera on panel
ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings
DimensionsOverall: Height: 63.8 cm, Width: 89 cm
Frame: Height: 81 cm, Width: 106.1 cm
AcquisitionPurchased in 1938 with income from the Macdonald Bequest.
CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0
LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub
Object numberABDAG003031
Keywords
About MeWhen Edward Wadsworth learnt of Aberdeen Art Gallery's intention to purchase this picture in 1938 he wrote to express his pleasure, since much of his childhood had been spent in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire. It was in Peterhead that Wadsworth gained his first knowledge of the sea and coastal subjects feature strongly in his art.

When this picture was painted Wadsworth had abandoned abstraction for a new heightened realism in which nature and the surreal came together in frozen ghostly silence. There is an element of fantasy in this work, derived from unexpected juxtapositions of scale and calculated precision. An absence of human interest further adds to the unnatural and surreal quality of the work.


More About Me
Wadsworth spent part of World War I as an invalid painting dazzle camouflage on ships. His painting on that subject gave the idea for the sleeve design of OMD’s 1983 album “Dazzle Ships”.
Exhibitions